Hatin' On Small Cities?
This comment was left by one of our readers on the main blog the other day. Do you agree with it?
For all intents and purposes, Alhambra is a suburb of the eastside of L.A. Without a "real" city like Los Angeles to hang onto the skirt tails of and drive their economies, these little "independent" cities that carry so much self-important pride (while they look down their noses at L.A.) - like Glendale, Alhambra, South Pasadena, El Monte, West Hollywood - even Pasadena, Santa Monica, and Long Beach might as well be Needles or Tucumcari, New Mexico.
They're as captive and indentured to the real city here, as is Hollywood and the SFV.
For all intents and purposes, Alhambra is a suburb of the eastside of L.A. Without a "real" city like Los Angeles to hang onto the skirt tails of and drive their economies, these little "independent" cities that carry so much self-important pride (while they look down their noses at L.A.) - like Glendale, Alhambra, South Pasadena, El Monte, West Hollywood - even Pasadena, Santa Monica, and Long Beach might as well be Needles or Tucumcari, New Mexico.
They're as captive and indentured to the real city here, as is Hollywood and the SFV.
Posted by Mayor Sam @ 4/03/2007 09:43:00 PM
1 Comments:
I hate to sound like a jingoistic local booster, but I have to disagree with this claim.
First, the poster seems to be having it both ways: either the cities in question are hanging on the "skirt tails" (ah yes, the famous tails of the skirt) of Los Angeles (or some other major city) or they are not. Presumably suburbs represent the former case, while Needles would exemplify the latter.
The poster seems ambivalent: the cities are only "independent," the use of scare quotes suggesting they aren't. And he refers to Alhambra as essentially a suburb of LA. So, it's difficult to know how the author himself feels about these cities (except that he's dismissive).
Further, I'd like to note that the poster betrays little knowledge of the economic forces driving these various communities. To be sure, none of them vie for Los Angeles in terms of economic might, but that doesn't mean they're slouching. Pasadena's office vacancy rate, for instance, is at 2.4%, while every square foot (7.6 million total) of industrial space is leased.
Take some time to take a closer look at the Foothill Cities, as we like to call them, and you may realize they're more independent than you think.
http://foothillcities.blogspot.com
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